Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)
| Recorded = 1975–1977 | Genre = Disco | Length = 75:54 | Label = RSO, Polydor, Reprise | Producer = Bill Oakes (Music Supervisor) | Chronology = Bee Gees | Last album = Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live (1977) | This album = Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track (1977) | Next album = Spirits Having Flown (1979) | Misc = }} Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track is the soundtrack album from the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta. In the United States, the album was certified 15× Platinum for shipments of over 15 million copies. The album stayed atop the album charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978 and stayed on Billboard s album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1. The album epitomized the disco phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic and was an international sensation. The album has been added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for being culturally significant. Background Origins and recording According to the DVD commentary for Saturday Night Fever, the producers intended to use the song "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs in the rehearsal scene between Tony and Annette in the dance studio, and choreographed their dance moves to the song. However, representatives for Scaggs's label, Columbia Records, refused to grant legal clearance for it, as they wanted to pursue another disco movie project, which never materialized. Composer David Shire, who scored the film, had to in turn write a song to match the dance steps demonstrated in the scene and eliminate the need for future legal hassles. However, this track does not appear on the movie's soundtrack. The Bee Gees's involvement in the film did not begin until post-production. As John Travolta asserted, "The Bee Gees weren't even involved in the movie in the beginning ... I was dancing to Stevie Wonder and Boz Scaggs."Sam Kashner, "Fever Pitch", Movies Rock (Supplement to The New Yorker), Fall 2007, unnumbered page. Producer Robert Stigwood commissioned the Bee Gees to create the songs for the film. Robin Gibb recalled: The brothers wrote the songs "virtually in a single weekend" at Château d'Hérouville studio in France. The first song they recorded was "If I Can't Have You", but their version was not used on the film. Barry Gibb remembered the reaction when Stigwood and music supervisor Bill Oakes arrived and listened to the demos: Maurice Gibb recalled, "We played him demo tracks of 'If I Can't Have You', 'Night Fever' and 'More Than a Woman'. He asked if we could write it more discoey" Releases The original issue of the album included the original studio version of "Jive Talkin ; later LP pressings included a version culled from Here at Last... Bee Gees... Live. All CD releases have included the original "Jive Talkin . "Jive Talkin was to have been used in a deleted scene taking place the day after Tony Manero's first Saturday night at the disco, but as the sequence was cut for the final film, the song was cut as well. In addition to the Bee Gees songs, additional incidental music was composed and adapted by David Shire. Three of Shire's cues – "Manhattan Skyline", "Night on Disco Mountain" (based on the classical piece "Night on Bald Mountain") and "Salsation" – are included on the soundtrack album as well. Five additional cues – "Tony and Stephanie", "Near the Verrazano Bridge" (both adapted from the Bee Gees' song "How Deep Is Your Love"), "Barracuda Hangout", "Death on the Bridge" and "All Night Train" – while heard in the film, remain unreleased on CD. In 1994, the soundtrack was re-released on CD through Polydor Records. In 2006, the album was re-released on Reprise Records as part of the Bee Gees' regaining control of their master tapes. Legacy |title=Allmusic review}} |rev2=Robert Christgau |rev2score=(B+)Album: Saturday Night Fever. Robert Christgau. |rev3=Pitchfork Media |rev3score=(8.7/10.0)Various Artists: Saturday Night Fever | Album Reviews. Pitchfork (July 13, 2007). }} Along with the success of the movie, the soundtrack, composed and performed primarily by the Bee Gees, was the best-selling soundtrack album of all time (it was later surpassed by Whitney Houston's soundtrack to The Bodyguard). Saturday Night Fever had a large cultural impact in the United States. The Bee Gees had originally written and recorded five of the songs used in the film – "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", "How Deep Is Your Love", "More Than a Woman" (performed in the film in two different versions – one version by Tavares, and another by the Bee Gees) and "If I Can't Have You" (performed in the movie by Yvonne Elliman) as part of a regular album. They had no idea at the time they would be making a soundtrack and said that they basically lost an album in the process. Two previously released Bee Gees songs – "Jive Talkin and "You Should Be Dancing" – are also included on the soundtrack. Other previously released songs from the disco era round out the music in the movie. The soundtrack also won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It is the only disco album to do so, and one of only three soundtrack albums so honored (the others being The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album and the ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack). In 2012, the album was ranked No. 132 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The soundtrack hit the No. 1 spot on Billboard Music Chart's Pop Album and Soul Album charts. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named it the 57th greatest album of all time, and it was ranked 80th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. Pitchfork Media listed Saturday Night Fever as the 34th best album of the 1970s. The album was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress on March 21, 2013 for long-term preservation. Track listing | note12 = Bee Gees | writer12 = Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb & Maurice Gibb | extra12 = Arif Mardin | length12 = 3:44 | title13 = You Should Be Dancing | note13 = Bee Gees | writer13 = Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb & Maurice Gibb | extra13 = Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson | length13 = 4:14 | title14 = Boogie Shoes | note14 = KC and the Sunshine Band | writer14 = Harry Wayne Casey & Richard Finch | extra14 = Casey & Richard Finch | length14 = 2:17 }} Additional songs recorded for the film but not used *"Emotion" by Samantha Sang *"You Stepped Into My Life" by Bee Gees *"If I Can't Have You" by Bee Gees *"(Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away" by Bee Gees *"Warm Ride" by Bee Gees Personnel *Barry Gibb – lead, harmony and backing vocals, rhythm guitar (tracks 1-4, 12-13) *Robin Gibb – lead (track 2), harmony and backing vocals (tracks 1-4, 12-13) *Maurice Gibb – bass, harmony and backing vocals (tracks 1-4, 12-13) *Alan Kendall – electric guitar (tracks 1-4, 12-13) *Blue Weaver – keyboards, synthesizer, piano (tracks 1-4, 12-13) *Dennis Bryon – drums, percussion (tracks 1-4, 12-13) *Joe Lala – percussion (tracks 1-4) *Stephen Stills – percussion (track 13) *Mike Baird – drums (track 10) *Michael Boddicker – synthesizer (tracks 8, 10) *Bob Bowles – guitar (tracks 5, 7) *Dennis Budimir – guitar (track 10) *Sonny Burke – piano (tracks 5, 7, 8); electric keyboards (track 15) *Eddie Cano – acoustic piano (track 15) *Mike Caruso – guitar (track 6) *Paulinho da Costa – percussion (tracks 5, 7) *Scott Edwards – bass (tracks 5, 10, 15) *Steve Forman – percussion (tracks 8, 10, 15) *James Gadson – drums (tracks 5, 7-8) *Ralph Grierson – keyboards (track 10) *Mitch Hoder – guitar (track 8) *Abraham Laboriel – bass (track 8) *Freddie Perren – synthesizer, keyboards, percussion (track 5) *Emil Richards – percussion (track 10) *Jerome Richardson – flute solo (track 15) *Tony Terran – trumpet solo (track 15) *Lee Ritenour – guitar (tracks 8, 10, 15) *David Shire – adaptation (track 10) *Mark Stevens – drums (track 15) *Chino Valdez – congas (track 15) *Bob Zimmitti – percussion (tracks 5, 7, 15) *John Tobler – liner notes *Bill Oakes – compilation, album supervision Awards Grammy Awards |- | width="35" align="center" |1978 ||"How Deep Is Your Love" ||Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group || |- | width="35" align="center" rowspan=4 |1979 || Saturday Night Fever || Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group || |- |''Saturday Night Fever'' || Album of the Year || |- |"Stayin' Alive" ||Best Arrangement of Voices || |- |Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson (producers) ||Producer of the Year || |- | width="35" align="center" | 2004 || Saturday Night Fever || Hall of Fame Award || |- American Music Awards |- | width="35" align="center" | 1979 || Saturday Night Fever ||Favorite Soul/R&B album || |- Singles Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Decade-end charts Certifications/sales }} |- !scope="row"| Hong Kong (IFPI Hong Kong) | Platinum | 15,000* |- }} See also * List of best-selling albums * List of best-selling albums in France * List of best-selling albums in Germany * List of best-selling albums in the United States * List of diamond-certified albums in Canada * List of number-one albums of 1978 (U.S.) * List of number-one R&B albums of 1978 (U.S.) * Sesame Street Fever References External links *Album online on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company *Saturday Night Fever on Discogs }} Category:1977 soundtracks Category:1977 albums Category:Bee Gees albums Category:Polydor Records soundtracks Category:RSO Records albums Category:Reprise Records soundtracks Category:United States National Recording Registry recordings Category:English-language soundtracks Category:Film soundtracks Category:Disco soundtracks Category:Grammy Award winners for Album of the Year